Out dybbuk, out!

Just like in every cult in which the guru instills terror in his followers to prevent them from abandoning him, so it is in the "Order of Gaza." Its leaders are threatening to fight against an entire country and its army until they are made to understand that the settlers cannot be defeated.

An orange badge? Why not? Let the settlers in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank wear any kind of badge they want, yellow or orange, in the shape of a Star of David or an amoeba. They earned the badge honestly when, voluntarily and with complete faith in their leap into the abyss, they planted themselves in the ghettos of the occupied territories. And indeed, Yesha [Judea, Samaria and Gaza] is there, not here. Here, we have a sovereign, legal and internationally recognized state; there - the ghettoed land of Israel's wanderers, where the laws of Israel are merely a recommendation and, frequently, an evil that needs to uprooted.

The State of Israel will cope with the Nazi image bestowed upon it by its "finest sons." After all, there is nothing new in the fact that the settlers describe Israel Defense Forces soldiers as Nazis. For Holocaust survivors, those who made it despite God's heroics in Auschwitz - that same God whose emissaries in Gush Katif and the Yesha Council have recruited now against the sovereignty of the state - the fact that the State of Israel was established is a source of much comfort. The State of Israel, not the Land of Israel. This is the same state that insists, and rightly so, that the right of return for Palestinians will not be realized within its borders, and which, in order for it to continue surviving, asks to rescind "the right of return" of 7,500 settlers to an enemy land.

It is also true that the disengagement from Gaza divides the nation and splits it into two parts - the one, tiny and loud, only a few thousand strong, that has been convinced until now that it had managed to swallow up the state, and is now terribly offended to discover that it was wrong; and the other, huge and quiet, comprising nearly six million people, that is tired of the drug with which it has been injected for nearly 40 years on the basis of a prescription for certain salvation; a majority that seeks to be rid of the dybbuk (a wondering soul believed in Jewish folklore to enter and control a living body) that has taken hold of it.

It is therefore incorrect to say that Sharon is tearing the nation apart. The nation is tearing itself away from this superfluous part, this heavy Star of David in the territories that hangs like an albatross around the neck of the state. Sharon was only an onlooker who saw the inclination of the vast majority and chose to go along with it. And, after all, Sharon's political greatness is not in doubt. It is the same political acumen that in days gone by led him to construct ghost settlements and take over rocky hilltops, and now guides him to return to the state's borders.

The State of Israel is experiencing, very belatedly, the process underwent by every empire that realized that its days were numbered. Britain returned home from India and the Fertile Crescent, from the Land of Israel and Egypt; France from the Levant and Algeria; Italy from Libya and Ethiopia; Africa threw out its masters; and these are but a few of the examples. Each of these empires was certain that the territory it conquered was to be held for eternity - a divine promise for a superior culture. Israel is just beginning the process of recovery.

This is not a recovery from a disease but instead from an illusion that distorted common sense, the physical borders of the state, and the clear distinction between legal and illegal, between dream and reality. Several decades of this illusion gave rise to tens of thousands of addicts who are now asking the state: How can you cut off this drug supply in one fell swoop, without a weaning process? Give us a referendum and we will be clean; give us the right to violate the law and we shall behave; put us in prison, oh wonderful state. Because without the Gaza dunes, without the mortar shells, the billowing smoke and children casualties, our lives are not worth living.

At such a moment, the state stands embarrassed and confused. After all, it is being accused of abandoning Zionism, faith, values and ideology, jointly and severally. It is being asked to shake off reality and continue memorizing the founding mythology. And just like in every cult in which the guru instills terror in his followers to prevent them from abandoning him, so it is in the "Order of Gaza." Its leaders are threatening to fight against an entire country and its army until they are made to understand that the settlers cannot be defeated. This is precisely the moment at which in similar circumstances, the medicine man, a believer and powerful individual, stands up and bellows: Out dybbuk, out!

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